“I was inverted”

We all sat down at the rows of desks in front of us. I laughed to myself; it looked like someone put a pop-up classroom in the middle of the hanger. I sat down next to Maverick, who had his sunglasses on. I remember him being so stoked to be coming to Top Gun; it was his dream, so it definitely made sense.

The instructor walked up to us to brief us on expectations and give us some new information. If we were going to be at the best school we’d need the best info. I could tell right away that Maverick was interested in her. She looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place where I’d seen her before. Her name was Charlie.

The session was going by slow enough; I had taken to doodling in my notebook because all of the information we already knew, it was just protocol by this point. Eventually, Charlie began talking about the MIG-28s and the data they collected on them. As she was telling us the numbers it didn’t match with what Maverick and I had seen earlier, and he noticed as well. Maverick leaned over to me “Those numbers are wrong” he grinned. Oh boy, he was gonna show off in a bit.

“The MIG we saw was way faster than that.”

“Is there something wrong?” Charlie interrupted. She seemed irked that Maverick was whispering in class. Maverick turned and replied “Yes Ma’ am, the data on the MIG is inaccurate.”

She seemed perplexed. I wasn’t surprised, she seemed pretty confident in what she knew–but it was still pretty laughable that we knew something she didn’t.

“How’s that, Lieutenant ?” I turned to Maverick as he replied. “Well I just happened to see a MIG-28–“I cut him off immediately “–WE.”. We both saw it, we were both in the jet. Maverick’s ego gets the best of him sometimes. He corrects himself “Sorry Goose, We just happened to see a MIG-28 do a 4g negative dive.” Maverick was my best pal, I had to remind him that I was his. Sometimes he forgot that and it kinda hurt. We’ve been through a lot together and are basically family; he just needs to practice not focusing so much on himself and showing off as an individual. Else he’d be way higher ranked by now.

Their banter went on for a little bit. I chimed in now and again. I could tell that Maverick was enjoying the banter, and it seemed Charlie did as well. Maverick made sure he used ‘we’ more, which made me feel better; at least he was making a noticeable effort to change his habits. Maybe they liked each other, who knows. It certainly made this lesson much more entertaining to listen to; my boy was playing the field.

When Maverick told her we were flying inverted, Charlie didn’t believe us. Normally I would let that sort of thing pass, but Maverick’s flying is truly something special, and I wasn’t going to let that awesome maneuver go unnoticed. “No, he was! I actually got a pretty sweet polaroid of it.” The picture really did turn out nice. I got some laughs from the other guys which was cool. It helps to get along with everyone, especially when you’re all working together.

The lesson soon got cut short so we could get into our first combat training. Maverick and I were stoked to hop into the jet and show them who’s boss.